Japanese cops called in to break up drunken brawl by other Japanese cops who were drunk

Multiple crimes committed during coworkers alcohol-fueled dinner.

On a night in late November, the employees of a restaurant in Akita City, capital of Japan’s northern Akita prefecture, had a problem. A group of about 10 men, all coworkers, had been drinking, and instead of being jovially or sleepily drunk, they’d settled on the belligerent style of intoxication instead.

The men started arguing among themselves, and eventually some of them came to blows, damaging the restaurant’s interior and fixtures in the process. Ordinarily, you’d call the cops in to break the brawl up, but in this case, the brawlers themselves were all police officers.

The inebriated men were all officers assigned to the same police box, or koban, as they’re called in Japanese. Like the name implies, koban are mini police stations, often with just a small visitors desk and inner office.

▼ A typical Japanese police box (please ignore SoraNews24’s Mr. Sato pouring syrup on the freshly fallen Tokyo street snow and eating it like shaved ice).

Police boxes are generally a reassuring city feature for law-abiding residents, since they provide a local police presence and rapid responses. But looking at the cramped working environment, you have to imagine that sometimes officers assigned to the same police box start to get on each other’s nerves, and it seems as though some simmering animosity sparked an argument between some members of the group at the Akita restaurant. It’s unclear what the topic of contention was, but despite the fact that one of the officers was the head of their koban, eventually the angry debaters, all of whom are attached to the Akita Prefectural Police’s Gojome Precinct, decided to try making their points with their fists instead of their words, and by the time the dust settled, one of the Gojome officers had suffered broken ribs.

Luckily, when the restaurant staff did call in the incident, the call was directed to the Chuo Precinct, who have now initiated an internal affairs investigation into the melee. As the investigation is still ongoing no disciplinary action has been decided yet, but if a group of police officers can’t go out to dinner without committing crimes including drunk and disorderly conduct, assault and battery, and property damage, it seems like their superiors might want to worry as much what/how much they’re drinking while off duty as they do about whether or not they enjoy non-alcoholic beverages while on patrol.

Sources: Tele Asa News via Jin, Mainichi Shimbun
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: SoraNews24

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